Shifting Gears
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: they had crash landed on earth thousands of years ago and watched the evolution of man. every fifty years or so they left the seclusion of their base and took human form so that they could live among the humans
1. Chapter 1

It had been several thousand years since they first crash landed on the blue planet that was later named Earth and in that time they had seen much of evolution. The evolution of the planet, it's animals, and then the creation and evolution of man.

The world didn't hold much promise at first-not to them anyways.

They were highly intelligent beings and trying to hold conversations with semi evolved apes was, well for lack of a better word; _frustrating_. But time passed and the world changed. Time and time again.

Plants died. Animals became extinct. Yet the apes managed to survive.

Thousands of years passed, and the apes evolved into intelligent beings later dubbed 'humans'. And though they were young to the universe and it's creation, they did not let that stop them from learning, discovering, and building vast civilasations, military bases, defensive weapons and weapons of mass destruction.

Time passed and they were all but forgotten to the apes.

Forgotten, but not gone.

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Optimus Prime sat in a chair outside of the cozy little road side cafe with a book of Robert Frost poems in one hand and a small cup of steaming herbal apple and cinnamon tea on the table next to his left hand. His semi long jet black hair hung loosely over his leather clad broad shoulders, his eerie neon/sapphire colored eyes scanning the words on the pages of his book while he subconsciously monitered the people around him.

His sharp ears picking up little snippets of conversation while at the same time pointedly trying to _ignore_ everything without seeming rude.

It had been a little over fifty years since the last time he and his brothers had left the safety and seclusion of their alien ship to mingle with the humans again, and he still couldn't get over how much things had changed.

The scenery was different. The buildings were different. The fashion was different. The music was different. Even the way people conducted themselves around others was different!

There was so many things that were different now that he had developed a nice migraine somewhere behind his optics before he had decided to sit down. But at least before he had gotten his migraine, he had done part of what he had set out to do.

He had secured a loft apartment, food, and had furnished the apartment to suit his tastes since he would be living among the humans for the next twenty years or so before he had to disappear and go back to the ship again.

He sat there for another twenty minutes or so before sighing and flipping his book closed. He was putting off leaving the cafe because he had to go back to the ship and grab some of his personal effects before calling it a day.

He stood up and pulled out his wallet and put several dollars on the table, under his tea cup and quietly left the cafe wondering if he was ever going to manage to finish the book of poems that he'd been reading for over ten years now. It was frustrating to start something and not be able to finish it.

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Somewhere outside the city-

The mountains were a lovely and majestic sight to behold from over three hundred and seventy feet over the valley of trees and streams and wild life.

She jammed another hook in a crack in the face of the rock she was busy climbing and felt the earth shift almost as if there was an earthquake. The shift and vibrations were subtle at first. Pausing from time to time and causing her to frown as she pressed her face against the hard rock with a muttered oath and use her arms to protect her head from the falling pebbles and earth that rained down on her head for a moment or so the air cleared and she felt it was safe enough to lift her head and look around.

She didn't understand why the mountain kept shaking like that.

The mounatin didn't rest over a fault line. Nor were there was no real signs of an earthquake having taken place anywhere in the world that would cause tremors so far across the country. And to her knowledge she wasn't trying to scale a frigging dormant volcano.

She looked around the side of the mountain for a moment-the sneaky suspicion that another tremor was about to take place forcing her to quickly secure the hook and clip her rope to it so that if she fell she wouldn't have to worry about falling far.

She sighed and started climbing again, determined to get to the nearest safe ledge before the next tremor started and heard an audible snapping sound a second before her whole body jerked and she found herself falling.


	2. Chapter 2

Optimus stared at the beat up red jeep parked at the foot of the mountain where the Autobots space ship was and made a small sound of irritation in the back of his throat as he peeked inside of one of the open doors.

He knew that there was no one in it. He'd already checked everywhere in the vehicle, including the area where the spare tire was kept and the glove box (though he had no fraggin idea how a human might fit into a glove box) but he had checked it anyways simply for the sake of making sure that the human driving the jeep hadn't fallen prey to foul play.

He'd walked all around the jeep five times. Five!

Looking for any traces of it's driver and had come across nothing visible. Which was frustrating to the already _irked_ Autobot and after several minutes of trying to figure out why the vehicle was abandoned at the base of the mountain without any traces of it's owner-

He changed tactics and instead started going through some of the owners personal effects.

He found a laminated picture pass under a small pile of papers and maps in the front passenger seat belonging to a young woman named Saya Evans. A lab tech at the local government labratory for the containment and study of alien technologies found in places like Area 51 and such.

To say that the little snippet of information was curious to him, would be an under statment. It was down right _fascinating_ to him that such a human might be roaming around his mountain somewhere. And at the same time it was worrying.

If the woman somehow managed to get into the ship hidden under ground, the Autobots would be over run by humans and their government officals in a matter of _hours_. Optimus sighed and lifted a hand to rub at the area above his left eye. A nervous habit that he had developed when he had first taken his human appearance so that he could blend in more.

_I need to contact Ratchet and the others and see if they can keep an optic out on the area around the mountain so that we can locate the woman before she stumbles onto something that we'll have to risk wiping her memory over._ Optimus thought as he stuffed the picture pass into one of his leather jacket pockets and started walking towards the hidden ground entrance that would take him into the ship.

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Ratchet and Jazz were both fit to be tied.

They had been shutting down all but the required systems in the ship when they felt the ships engines fire up for the first time, then automatically shut down. The two went totally still, wondering what the slag had just happened when it happened again.

The engines fired up for all of two seconds or so, but it was more than enough to worry/enrage the two elder bots who quickly ran a system scan on the ships controls and mainframe before determining that someone had hacked into the controls for the engines and was playing with the damn things.

Jazz looked at Ratchet and made a vibrating growling sound as the word, 'Sparklings' slithered through their minds a second or so before they both turned and ran for the large door seperating the control room from the rest of the ship and all but prying the damn thing open in their haste while mentally going over the increadibly short list of suspects.

There was Hot Shot, Bumble-bee, Bumper, and Sunstreaker. They were the only four young ones on the ship that still qualified as sparklings. And three out of the four of them knew better than to mess with the ship and it's systems. Which meant that Hot Shot was in for a real ass kicking once the two older bots found him.

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Hot Shot was sitting on the floor of the ship, wires running from his wrist to the control pannel on the wall outside of the engine room. He couldn't believe that everyone was going to leave him and Sideswipe alone on the ship for the next twenty years or so while they all interacted with the humans.

What did he look like to them? A newly created sparkling?

Sure he had had Optimus and several others explain the reasons why he couldn't go. But one would think that if he couldn't go that Bumble-bee and Sunstreaker, and Bumper wouldn't be able to go either. They were all the same age for slaggin sake!

And yet why was it that Optimus and the other older bots seemed to think that he needed someone keeping an optic on him 24/7?

So he didn't function well in closed quarters with small lifeforms. Big fraggin deal. It wasn't like he destroyed things or shot at people on purpose. He was a defense bot. It was only common sense that if he got startled, he'd shoot at something.

He heard the pounding of heavy foot steps heading his way and quickly unhooked the wires from the control pannel and stuffed them back into the small compartment in his wrist and shut it as Jazz came running up and snarled, "Sparkling, what the hell do you think your doing?"

"Nothing." Hot Shot said in a defensive tone despite the fact that he knew that he was busted.

Jazz growled at him. "_Don't. Attempt. To. Lie. To. Me_."

Hot Shot shrugged his shoulders. "Okay. I won't. I was sitting here sulking."

"Playing with the engines, you mean."

"No. I'm pretty sure I was sulking." Hot Shot said, feigning innocence as he slowly got to his feet. Jazz opened his mouth to say snap at him again when they heard a peculiar series of thudding sounds a second or so before the vent over Hot Shots head crashed to the floor and something fell to the floor among a pile of dirt and rocks.

The two bots stood there for a second staring at the opening in the ceiling then at the little mound on the floor before looking at each other as Jazz practically shouted, _"What the slagging hell did you do? Optimus is going to kill us!"_


	3. Chapter 3

_"What happened?" Optimus asked as he made his way into the medical bay of the ship in his robot form. His blue optics looking from one of the three bots hovering over an open berth chamber to another, taking in the furious expressions of Ratchet and Jazz then the guilty expression on Hot Shot's face and raised one of the ridges over his left optic as Jazz and Ratchet both started talking at once while shifting from foot to foot nervously._

_"We don't know what happened-" Jazz said in a slightly panicked tone. _

_"One second we were shutting down the ship and the next the engines were firing. We knew something was up and figured that it was one of the sparklings-"_

_"We went looking for the one responsible-" Ratchet added absent mindedly as he scanned the small figure laying on the berth to see the full extent of the human's injuries._

_"Hot Shot is guilty as sin! He messed with the engines, lied about it, and unwittingly created an opening-"_

_"And now we have a wounded human female laying in our ship medical bay... I say we disassemble Hot Shot and reprogram him!" Jazz said the last part quickly, a hopeful expression on his face._

_Optimus looked at Hot Shot and gave the younger bot a weird patient/curious look and the bot shook his head slowly and backed away from the berth and the two older bots in a silent indication that the current situation was not his fault. _

_Even though he knew deep down that it probably was. _

_Optimus sighed and muttered something about 'sparklings and their intelligence level' and then walked over to the berth and took a look at the human laying there. It was the woman who owned the beat up jeep at the base of the mountain. Saya Evens had made a true mess of herself when she had fallen through one of the long buried vent shafts. Her skin was cut, bleeding and bruised under all of the dirt and dust that had attached itself to her skin._

_The right side of her face looked like it had been crushed from the eye socket down. Perhaps she had hit it far too hard on the metal shoots that had dropped her into the ship. There was a sparkling 'hand' sized bruise on one of her sides and she seemed to be having trouble breathing. She kept making a gurgling sound-_

_Ratchet put his hand on his shoulder jolting Optimus from his own thoughts as he turned his head and looked at the medic bot. "Optimus, her body is very damaged-" _

_"I can see that." Optimus said in an unnatrually quiet tone as he looked back at the woman. _

_Ratchet shook his head a little bit and removed his hand from Optimu's shoulder. "I know that you can see the external damage, but you can't see the mass of ruptured organs in her stomach and abdomen. Or the four broken ribs and punctured lung..." Optimus looked at him again, his expression blank for a moment. _

_"She's dying." Ratchet nodded his head and Optimus got a sad look on his face and reached one hand out and gently ran the tip of his index finger along the curve of her uninjured cheek and jumped a littel bit when she opened her one undamaged eye and looked up at him. Optimus stilled and stared down at her while she stared up at him. _

_"Ratchet- Please tell me that you gave her a seditive. Something to make her sleep through the pain..." _

_Ratchet shook his head even though Optimus wasn't looking at him. "No. I was afraid to give her anything due to the extent of her wounds-"_

_"Then give her something slaggit! She should not spend the rest of her time in this world writhing in pain." Optimus said in irritation, his spark vibrating painfully in his chest. Ratchet looked at his leader for a moment wondering if he could dissuade him from giving the woman anything so that he might get permission to use some of their nano bot technology to try and save the woman's life. _

_But if he got permission he would have to keep her in a semi conscious state through most of the reconstruction her body would go through until it was almost completely done. Then once he was sure it was safe to give her something then he'd give her a sedative and let her sleep through everything else. _

_"Before I give her anything Optimus; I'd like for permission to use some of our technology to save her." Ratchet said in a cautious tone. He wasn't sure how Optimus would react since it wasn't their normal policy to interfere with the fates of most humans. _

_Though from time to time they did make a special exception. Optimus looked at him with an unreadable expression on his face for a moment before looking back at the woman and seemed to be mulling over Ratchets request before sighing. "Very well. One one condition-" _

_Since he was giving the med bot permission to use some of their tech to save the woman, it meant that her life span would be extended considerably. Which meant that they would have to slow her aging process to a crawl so that her body wouldn't end up decaying before she died. _

_It also meant that she would need to be protected and watched all the days of her life. And since Optimus was the one giving permission to have the procedure done- __The responsiblity fell squarly to him._


	4. Chapter 4

The procedure to save Miss Evan's life took four days.

Something that Optimus felt badly about since she slipped in and out of consciousness the whole time and was in a great deal of pain. But in the whole four days she was undergoing reconstruction by their technology, he didn't leave the med bay for even a second.

Since the woman was now the responsibility of the Autobots it had just made sense to sit himself down somewhere close by and keep her company. Whether she was aware of his presence or not.

On the fourth day, Optimus was mentally coming up with formulas and theories- The constant mathmatic equasion and thought of various things was in a small way comforting to him since he hadn't gotten up or moved around or rested much in the past few days. For some reason he couldn't really explain, everytime he tried to rest or relax, he got an odd almost tingling sensation in his nerves; and could almost feel eyes on him.

At first he thought it might be Ratchet or Jazz or Hot Shot possibly checking in on him and the woman using their normal method of communication via the ship's main computer. But after several moments or so he realised that that couldn't be the case since the main computer had been shut down days ago.

And unless Hot Shot was messing with things again (the good matrix willing, Prime just might decide to dismantle the sparkling if he was) then it meant that someone really was _watching_ him.

He spent several hours trying to figure out if Hot Shot was maybe trying to initiate him in a game or something before deciding to try and see if he could catch whoever was watching him. He closed his optics a majority of the way, keeping only a small sliver open so that he could see and waited almost an hour before he got that feeling again and managed to catch the woman, Miss Evan's wide awake and _aware_ for the first time in days.

She looked at him and seemed to be studying him. He imagined that he was a very _fascinating_ piece of advanced tech, but if she kept looking at him like that, he would overheat. He opened his optics completely and looked at her, noting that the studying look that she had been giving him seemed to change automatically as she smiled at him and gave him a soft nearly inaudible rasping 'hello'.

Optimus blinked his optics at her and debated with himself for a moment or so about the peculiarness of her reaction to him before giving her a slightly hesitant greeting right back. "Hello, Miss Evan's. How are you feeling?"

She blinked her turqouise colored eyes at him and seemed a little startled that he had replied in such a way. She had expected the big mecha to _sound_ like a mecha. Not have the soft slightly husky voice of a human man. And the way he had said her name...

She blinked again. Wait- Why did the thirty two foot mecha know her name?

And what did he mean by 'how was she feeling'? Her confusion must have been very apparent to the mecha since he gave her a small human like smile and said, "You had a small accident due to one of the sparklings under my command, and was hurt. So we have been taking care of you and healing your wounds."

She mulled over what the mecha had just said to her and said a soft 'Oh...thanks' as understanding dawned on her before she started staring at him again.

"Is there something that you need Miss Evan's?" Optimus asked curiously, wondering if she was in the habit of staring at people in such a bizarre manner. She seemed a little startled by his question and shook her head no causing him to tip his head to the side and stare back at her before saying in an amused tone of voice.

"Or is there a _particular_ reason that your staring so intently?" Saya flushed a vivid pink and stuttered out a quick apology, feeling a little bit like a bitch for staring at him like he was a freak or something when he was an obviously well mannered, well crafted, and very_ intelligent_ life form.

So what if he was thirty two feet tall and shiney metal and wire and gears. He was unique. And there was nothing wrong with that.

Except that he was capable of speech, and reason, and _humor_- She suddenly had a million questions buzzing around in her brain and hadn't realized that she was still staring at him. He shifted his huge body, and she widened her eyes in wonder as the big hulking giant mecha moved away from the far wall of the room and curled his body at an impossible angle and suddenly loomed over her.

His face just an arms legnth away.

She blinked at him in surprise, then felt a small sliver of fear work it's way down her spine and wondered if she had offended him to the point where he was going to immitate the Hulk and 'smash' her into a little puddle of goo or something. But instead of looking angry, or even bothered by her sudden lack of manners (not that he knew if she had them or not) and seemed to be studying her just as curiously as she had been studying him before saying. "You have questions."

She nodded her head slowly then on an impulse lifted one of her hands from her side and reached out to touch him. Optimus held himself perfectly still, curious about what she was thinking and how she would react to him letting her touch him and leaned down a fraction of an inch more and felt her finger tips lightly brush along the lower lip of his mouth and jerked back a little bit to keep her from trying to run her fingers over his teeth.

The jagged metal would rip the soft flesh of her hand all the way to the bone.

She started to drop her hand, a raspy apology escaping her and he blinked at her. The silly woman was misreading his intention. It was both amusing and irritating. "Do not apologise for being curious, little one. I do not mind. I do however worry about your hand being so close to my mouth-" Optimus explained politely before saying in a hushed almost embarrassed tone. "My teeth are _very_ sharp and could hurt you."

Saya let out a breathy sounding "Oh. Oh okay..." Before asking him in an equally polite tone. "Can I try again as long as I stay away from your mouth?"

Optimus shrugged his shoulders and leaned down a little bit more and felt her small hand ghost along part of his cheek and was about to say something else when the door to the med bay opened and he quickly scrambled back to where he had been across the room as Ratchet walked in and waved to Optimus in greeting before moving over to the berth and quickly looking over Miss Evans.

Completely missing Optimus's overheated face.


	5. Chapter 5

Ratchet walked out of the med bay with a self satisfied look on his face to await Optimius's call for him to put the woman to sleep after a brief explination about what was going to happen next. And he had to hand it to their technology, it knew how to reconstruct a person.

The woman didn't have any _scars_, or _bruises_. Her broken bones and punctured lung had been fixed and her face.

Matrix above, if he had been in his human form- He totally would have done whatever he could to sweep the little woman off her feet.

The reconstruction of her partially crushed face had been achieved in record time and then as if the nano bots in her body had sensed that they had a new host, they had set out to make their new host as _flawless_ and _beautiful_ as the very stars in the sky surrounding the little blue planet that they called home.

They had removed any unhealthy fats from her body and broke it down into protiens that had been used to make her skin softer, her hair longer, her fingernails had grown out. They had forced her body to grow an extra ten inches making the once four foot seven woman, grow until she stood at a nice five foot seven. Not insanely tall, but not as freakishly short as she had been before.

Which was good since Optimus's human form was close to six foot eight and the added height might keep the man from stepping on her.

He stood there for a good twenty minutes before getting a mite curious about what was taking so long and peeked around the corner into the room and saw Optimus placing his spark back inside of his chest while holding the shaken looking human upright with one of his large hands and scowled at his leader's back. He wasn't supposed to form a spark bond with the female until she was asleep, slag it!

Forming such an intimate bond with a fleshling while they were conscious, _terrified_ them. That was why they were put to sleep. To keep them from being so frightened.

"Alright, it's over. See. No more spark, and your still perfectly fine." Optimus said in a low soothing tone as he tried to comfort Miss Evans as she leaned against his palm shaking and pale. She blinked her eyes a few times and sort of patted herself down a little bit just to be sure that he was telling the truth then seemed to gradually relax against his palm.

"Hn. So I am." She said in a relieved tone as Optimus gave her a small smile.

"Now that that's out of the way, you need to rest."

"Hn. Eager to be rid of me already... I wish I could say that I'm surprised-" Saya said in a half joking tone causing Optimus to scowl at her as she rubbed her eyes. The spark bond that he had just formed with her was already working, he could feel her tiredness and knew that she still needed the rest. That was why he had mentioned her need. Yet he had felt, just for a second, a small sliver of hurt from her and wondered at why his words seemed to cause such a reaction in her.

But before he could closely examin the feeling and figure out the reason behind it, she seemed to realize that he was reading her and slammed up a mental block to keep him from using their bond any further as she dropped her hands from her eyes and gave him a displeased look. "Those thoughts are private big guy. And please don't look into them without permission. It's rude."

Unable to figure out what exactly he had done wrong he was about to ask her about her reaction when he noticed Ratchet peeking around the corner of the door across the room and sighed and laid Miss Evan's back down on the berth. "Come in Ratchet. I'm done explaining things to Miss Evans."

Ratchet did as his leader told him too and entered the room and walked over to the berth and asked, "Did you explain everything? Why she is being put to sleep and who she will be watched by?"

Optimus shot him a withering glare and opened the line of silent communication between himself an his friend and thought loudly, _Do not question me. I am not so neglectful that I would forget to explain something so important. _Ratchet visably cringed a little bit and grabbed a tool from the shelf standing against the wall a few feet away and tried to ignore the unblinking predatory look that Optimus was giving him, a silent indication to how _irked_ the Autobot leader was at him for questioning him and quickly administered the sedative that would put the woman to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Two days later-

Optimus leaned his back into the winged antique chair that he had been sitting in for the past day in a half and looked over at the large carved oak queen sized bed where Miss Evan's lay sleeping, and found himself watching the rise and fall of her breasts for what must have been the uptenth time in so many hours. Subconsciously monitoring the woman's breathing patterns for any changes that would indicate distress or the awareness that comes from waking.

He'd been busy for the past day in a half after bringing Saya to his apartment to stay, he'd then had to call her boss and her family and explain why she hadn't been at work in the recent days, and why her family couldn't contact her; so that they wouldn't worry.

He'd then gone to her place and had her land lord release her from her contract and had moved her things into his temporary home knowing that the change would no doubt upset her.

But felt that there wasn't much of a choice since he shared a spark bond with her and knew that letting her go back to her previous life would end badly for her if the people where she worked ever figured out that she was now different from them, or if the decepticons ever found out about her.

She was his responsibility and he'd be _damned_ if he let the humans dissect her. Or the decepticons kill her.

So after fixing up his bedroom so that she could have it, he then purchased clothes, delicates and other things includings things like makeup, perfume, and things for her to tie her hair back with, he then purchased other things.

More..._embarrassing_ things.

Feminine napkins, pads, medicines to ease the discomfort of monthly cycles exct. And could remember the stunned look on the cashiers face when he had all but cut in the line to the register and dumped his things onto the small table area with his face flaming red while trying to look impassive and unconcerned while his things were rung up.

He was never going back to that damned store. _Ever_.

Nor was he ever again purchasing anything remotely similar to feminine pads and what not. He'd just give the woman his wallet and then walk away and let her do the shopping next time.

He curled his lips back from his teeth in a silent snarl of distaste at the days earlier events and shuddered when he heard a soft mewing sound come from the woman sleeping in his bed and instantly calmed himself. As ruffled as his proverbial feathers were at the moment, he didn't need the woman waking up thinking that he was going to rip her head off.

Not when he needed her to feel _comfortable_ and _safe_ with him since she would be staying with him from now on.

He sighed and leaned back in his seat again and ran his fingers through his semi long dark hair. _She should have been awake by now. Shouldn't she?_ He wondered as he looked at the woman again and went totally still when she made another mewing sound and rolled over onto her side and curled up under the deep neon blue, silver and lavender colored quilt that had caught his eye at the store earlier.

He sat there for another hour or so before deciding to stretch his legs a bit and see if there was anything that he could fix to eat in the fridge since neither he nor the woman had eaten in several days and he needed to make sure that at least one of them was fed considering that the female was a carbon based life form, unlike him, and could easily _starve_ to death if he didn't make sure that she was properly cared for every day.

He took his time cooking something for their breakfast/lunch and was about to lay everything out on some plates when his sensitive ears picked up signs of movement along with softly muttered words.

It sounded like she was finally awake.

He wasn't sure if he was ready to face her just yet. He'd been meaning to practice explaining who he was and why she was here in his apartment just in case she might have forgotten but he'd gotten a mite preoccupied with watching her rest and had lost track of time.

It wasn't an excuse-

Well okay, maybe it was.

But he just hadn't been expecting to suddenly feel so _nervous_ about having the woman in his temporary home. He set the frying pans with their food aside and turned off the stove and anxiously wiped his hands on his jeans and turned and started back to the bedroom where he found the woman sitting up in his bed looking around with a puzzled look on her pretty face.

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Saya didn't know where she had woken up. But she knew that the bed that she was in didn't belong to her.

It was too big. Too spacious. Too...too _antique_.

Don't get her wrong- It was lovely. The wood was beautifully carved with amazing detail. The designs looked victorian, flowers with little cerubs fluttering about. The walls of the room didn't really match the bed.

The color was a slivery gray with royal blue trim. The windows had silvery gray curtains.

There was a winged back antique chair sitting a few feet from the left side of the bed, next to a small bedside table with a blue lamp, and a thick navy colored book sitting on it.

She pushed the oddly out of place blanket covering her, back and started to move towards the edge of the bed when she caught sight of what she was wearing and made a weird little sound and lifted one arm to study the royal blue sleeve attached to the beyond big royal blue cotton shirt that she didn't remember putting on.

Her turquoise eyes widening a little bit in alarm. Good lord- This was a man's shirt! A very, very, very _big_ man's shirt.

"_Oh my god what did I_ _do_?" She squeaked and was more than a little bit startled by the soft rapping sound of knuckles on the wall just inside the door across the room.

She jerked her head around and made a frightened little sound in the back of her throat as a six foot eight inch tall giant slowly pushed the bedroom door open and stepped into the door way. Saya blinked at him and subtly moved her hand so that she could pinch her leg as she studied him. And jumped a little bit in surprise when she felt pain where she had just pinched herself.

Which meant that she really was in a strange room with a strange man the size of a bear.


	7. Chapter 7

Her heart was beating too fast. And he could almost taste her fear on his tongue.

Optimus took a deep breath and tried to calm her down through the bond that he had created, but it took some real doing. Her thoughts were going a mile a minute, the jumbled mess of her frightened mind _irked_ him a little bit when he caught some of what she was thinking.

Jumbled as her thoughts were- They were less than nice.

She was mentally rambling to herself about his size. What the hell did she have against him being six foot eight? Sure he was just a bit above average height but that was perfectly understandable considering his real height was thirty two feet tall.

He looked down at his feet for a moment and frowned a little bit when he caught the bizarre thought of, _'Oh my god, don't tell me that I went drinking with Cindy again-_' Optimus scowled a little bit as he looked back at her. He didn't know who Cindy was, but if he ever caught her taking Miss Evans drinking for any reason...he just might forget that he was _against_ violence to humans.

Then she started mentally rambling about his looks and the way he was dressed. Again he looked down at himself and scowled. What was wrong with the way he looked and dressed? He wondered in agitation as he rubbed his sweaty palms on his jeans again.

Optimus was very proud of his human form.

It was pleasant to look upon. He was in no way scrawny or delicate looking. His body was muscular in a way that wasn't overwhelming to others and fit his body type nicely. His facial features were aristicratic- or at least that was how Ratchet had described them once.

His facial features weren't exactly femininely beautiful, thank god. But in his own way, he was attractive enough. And his tastes in clothing was just fine since he was wearing his lounging clothes, a black tee-shirt and some faded jeans.

So what was the woman's problem? He wondered curiously before he caught some less than flattering thoughts from her mind and decided that he needed to one day have a long, long talk with her about _those_ thoughts.

They were dishonorable. He was not.

Nor was he the type to take advantage of a woman. _And what the hell was a roofie?_

He was starting to get a headache from the jumbled thoughts in her head and finally after so long, he just couldn't take it any more. His curiosity got the best of him. "What's a roofie?"

Saya gave him a weird look at first, her mind slowed and he felt rather proud of himself for not having to resort to shaking her just to slow her thoughts. But then it still took her a second or so for her to fully grasp what he'd asked her. "W-What did you just say?" Saya asked stupidly.

Optimus tilted his head to the side a little bit and crossed his arms over his chest. He wasn't really paying attention to her thoughts or anything else in particular any more. He was however just a little intrested in the sound of her voice.

She still had the raspy, husky sound from when they had talked before, back at the ship. He'd initally thought that the sound of her voice was so odd sounding because she had somehow damaged it. Now he wasn't so sure. Not unless Ratchet and the tech that they had used to save her life, had missed something.

He stayed silent a moment or so longer before saying smoothly, "I asked if you slept well. Did you?"

He knew that he shouldn't lie to her about what he had said before, but the second he'd detected her earlier panic, spiking dangerously into full blown terror, he had decided to try and shift her attention from his earlier question to something _less_ terrifying for her.

She looked just a little bit taken aback by the question before silently nodding her head. Her mind fell silent to him for the moment, and he smiled and decided to take this chance to introduce himself.

"Forgive me for frightening you Miss Evans, my name is Optimus Prime, and as of a few days ago I became responsible for your health and well being. I know that you have questions-" She opened her mouth to say something and he stopped her by holding up the index finger of his right hand to indicate that she should be quiet for the moment. And was pleasantly surprised when she shut her mouth and just sat there in silence waiting for him to finish speaking.

"And I will answer what I can. I just want you to know that you are safe here and have _nothing_ to _fear_ from me." He said honestly and nearly flinched when he caught her thought of, _Said the devil in disguise. _


	8. Chapter 8

_Said the devil in disguise..._

Optimus was a mite offended by Saya's earlier thought of him being a devil in disguise, but even so he let it slide as he sat down on the far side of the bed and folded his hands in his lap and waited for her to ask him something. The first question that popped into her mind was a little bit off track since he was expecting her to ask him something along the lines of 'why am I here' instead she asked, "Is this shirt I'm wearing yours?"

She sounded suspicious of him. And he couldn't begrudge her her suspicions. After all human females tended to get into the damndest most god awful messes. And she was probably wondering if she was currently in one of those 'messes'.

He supposed on some level she must have known instinctively that she was. She just didn't seem to recall how he fit into things. He took a moment to consider her question before answering her. "Yes. It's mine."

"D-Did you undress me?" She asked tentaively, her raspy, husky voice shaking a little bit.

"No. I let the doctor do it." Optimus said honestly.

She blinked at him and frowned. "D-Doctor? What doctor?"

_Ah, now we get to the root of things. _Optimus thought before saying, "I was out hiking the other day and found you unconscious at the foot of a mountain. You must have fallen or something-" He was starting to get a little bit uncomfortable now because he would have to tell her some more lies and half truths and make it all sound completely plausable.

"I checked to make sure that you had no broken bones, and you stirred for a moment then lost consciousness again. So I took you to the nearest hospital and called in a few favors with one of my friends who is a doctor. After the hospital checked you out, I was supposed to take you home- But to find out where you lived I'd have to got through your pockets and see if I could find some form of identification. But that didn't really feel right. So I just brought you here and called my doctor friend when I needed help with something."

Saya frowned at him for a second. His explination sounded like it could have happened. She did recall falling, though she had no idea how far down before she had stopped. So his story _could_ have happened. Maybe.

"Y-You called me by my name earlier. Does that mean that you-"

He sighed and put one of his hands into his pants pocket and pulled out her black denim wallet. "It sort of happened by accident when I was pulling your stuff out of your pants pockets. Your clothes were ruined beyond repair and I didn't want to throw away anything important to you so I kind of went through your pockets and pulled out your stuff. Your wallet fell off of the table I set it on..." He reached over and set her wallet on the bedside table, way across the bed next to him, she noted in irritation. "I guess that I miscalculated or bumped the table or something and it caused your wallet to fall. Sorry." He said as he went back to his earlier position with his hands neatly folded in his lap, his eerie blue eyes staring at her.

Even though he had said that he was sorry, Saya noticed that he didn't look the least bit ashamed of himself. _The beast. _It was on the tip of her tongue to say something snide to him about going through her stuff but after a moment or so he got up, the smooth fluid action catching her attention and holding it as he walked over to the dresser across from the foot of the bed and pulled some stuff out of two of the drawers and then carried a small pile of what looked like clothes over to the bed and set them down at the foot of her side of the bed and then moved away.

Saya frowned and stared at the pile of clothes, noting that there were a clean pair of white and lavender purple colored panties and a matching bra on top of the pile. Right where she could see them.

Her face turned a vivid pink as her eyes flew to his back. He turned and looked at her for a second then gave her a cheeky smile, then slipped out of the room so that she could get changed or shower or do whatever she needed to do. He figured that it was for the best that he left the room for now. At least until she was dressed.

He felt strangely embarressed about having been in the room with a half naked human female.


	9. Chapter 9

Optimus was standing outside of his bedroom listening to the sounds Saya made as she moved around the spacious room. No doubt exploring her new habitat like all confused and curious people did.

He figured by her movements and the way she suddenly stopped, and by the way that her heart seemed to stutter in her chest- That she must have found something familiar to her. Her clothes? The small trinket box with the flowers painted on it maybe? Or the set of colorful Egyption glass perfume bottles sitting on top of his dresser perhaps?

He opened his mind to her and caught her thought of, _What the hell?_

And that was it. There was nothing else. Which Optimus found strange since he was sure that she must have noticed _some_ of her things sitting out in the open. Still he stood there waiting for the inevitable explosion and almost jumped out of his skin when he heard her hand smack the bedroom door.

Right next to his ear a second or so before he heard her ask, "Is it okay if I use your shower?"

Optimus blinked his eyes. He had to say, this female had him so utterly confounded that he had no idea what to do. Which was probably why it took him five minutes, and three more _impatient_ sounding hits to his bedroom door, before he managed to finally answer her.

"Uh. Yeah, just grab some clothes out of the closet or something." _Towels are in the bathroom on a shelf next to the sink. _He thought as he pushed away from the wall and decided that it was in his best interest to put as much space between himself and her as he could.

He had the feeling that he'd need the extra space and time to collect his thoughts since they seemed to be scattered all over the place.

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Saya couldn't believe the stuff in the strangers room.

For a bear of a man, Mr. Optimus had taste. _Expensive_ taste. Everything from the bed, to the clothes in the closet, to the furniture scattered here and there across the large spacious room; was antique.

Many of the pieces were from the Victorian era. All of the pieces, carved or not, were usually sold for _hundreds_ of _thousands_ of dollars. Saya went through the room systmatically checking out Optimus's stuff. And by the time she was done...

She was so freaked out by the fact that Optimus had enough money to make her disappear, that she was feeling nauseous and more than a little weak kneed. And after a second or so of sitting down on the edge of the massive bed. She decided to get up, pull herself together, grab a shower, tell Mr. Optimus 'thanks' for saving her.

And get the hell out of dodge before she wore out her welcome.

She walked over to the door and banged on it once, just beacuse she knew a guy like Optimus would still be hanging around; even if it was outside his own bedroom door. Then asked if she could use his shower.

He didn't answer right away. Which was why she had had to smack the door a few more times. But finally he gave her permission. Permission that she had no intention of wasting. She walked over to the dresser and started opening drawers until she came across the most curious sight.

Her own _private_ collection of satin and lace panties and bras.

Her mind stopped functioning for a second as she pulled out her favorite peach satin and white lace panties and bra and held them up in front of her face to make sure that they were really hers. She noted that the bra had the little gold thread dot that she liked to put on her unmentionables when she decided to go on vacations. As a means for her to identify her own things if she ever lost any and had to go back looking for them.

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Optimus was in the middle of eating his breakfast when he caught a sliver of Saya's anger and outrage. And dropped his fork as he jumped to his feet and looked around almost nervously.

Optimus was in no way, shape, form or fashion; a coward. Never had been. Never would be.

Yet the sheer amount of seething rage churning within the female down the hall sent a chill down his spine. It made him feel like Megatron was breathing down the back of his neck. It made him nervous and twitchy.

But that didn't mean that he would back down. No. Not him. He didn't back down from anything. Which was why he pushed his chair back a little more and started walking and nearly tripped over his own feet when he caught Saya's thought of, _I have to destroy this place. Where is my lighter? _

_Lighter?_ Optimus thought stupidly as he started to pat down his pockets before remembering that he'd left the lighter that he'd found in her pants pocket before he'd thrown her pants away; on his dresser.

Right in the open.

Five minutes later he was kicking in his bedroom door aqnd dragging the hissing and spitting woman out of the inferno that she had so stupidly created.

Forty five minutes later-

He stood across the street from his burning apartment watching it go up as the fire fighters pulled up. He sighed and hung his head a little bit.

Could anyone blame him?

His temporary home had just gone up in smoke because the silly woman tucked under his arm had decided that his home needed to be destroyed in retaliation for him going through her things.

What she hadn't seemed to grasp yet was that her stuff was now cinders too. "Put me down!" Saya snarled as she thrashed around in his grip. Optimus glanced away from his burning home to look down at the seething young woman and growled at her.

"Be quiet and stop thrashing around."

"No! You can't order me around-"

"Like hell I can't-" Optimus said as he dropped Saya onto the pavement and dropped down to kneel in front of her and grasped her shoulders and was only a _little_ appeased by the flash of wariness that crossed her face. "You're my responsibility!"


	10. Chapter 10

Saya blinked at him, her eyes wide. She looked taken aback by his words. _Finally-_ Optimus thought with some satisfaction. Finally he was getting through to her. Or at least that's what she let him think until she opened her mouth again.

"What the hell do you mean I'm your responsibility? I'm my own person. I don't need a stranger to look after me."

"Yes you do."

"I do not!"

"You sound like a child-"

"Maybe I wouldn't sound this way if you didn't keep talking nonsense!" She shouted at him.

Optimus scowled at her and pointed to the inferno across the street. "You burned down my home. That was not only foolish, but childish as well."

"And _you_ are getting on my nerves." Saya growled at him. He glared at her.

"I feel that I should point out to you; that you burned _your_ things too." Optimus said in an irritated tone. She snorted and crossed her arms over her breasts.

"My things, are at my home-" Optimus shook his head slowly, his expression somber. She gave him a funny look as she seemed to be thinking over what he was trying to tell her. He knew the exact second it sank in for her. Because his ears would never be the same.

Her scream of outrage and fury rang through the darkening city, causing his sensitive ear drums to vibrate dangerously as he clapped his hands over his ears and dropped to his knees blinking back tears as she got to her feet and looked towards the inferno.

_Primus!_ Optimus thought darkly. The female had lungs that could rattle even the steeliest of bots. "Stop screaming!" Optimus roared at her.

Saya abruptly snapped her mouth shut then without any worning kicked him in the shoulder, knocking him off balance a little bit then turned and started running down the street. Optimus righted himself and rubbed his shoulder absently and sighed as he rolled his eyes.

Gods above. _Why couldn't anything ever be easy? _"Where is that damned woman running off too?" He muttered under his breath as he got up and started running after her.

He needed to _catch_ her before she did something else stupid...like burn down the entire city block. Or something.

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Saya ran as fast as she could, heedless of the fact that she wasn't wearing pants or shoes or her foot hurt from kicking that dumbass bear of a man- Or the fact that she was getting funny looks from the people on the streets around her. Or the fact that she thought that she'd stepped in something nasty a little ways back.

Her only concern was getting someplace far away from Optimus.

Which was probably why she didn't really notice him fall into step beside her until she saw a large size thirteen black nike sneaker enter her line of vision. She glanced up and to the side and let out an oath and tried running faster, but the bastard had her.

Literally. His hand snagged the back of the shirt that she was wearing, and though she thrashed around and tried to free herself, logically she knew that nothing less than stripping would free her from his grasp.

And she couldn't do that because she was fairly certain that she wasn't wearing a bra. "Where do you think you're going?" Optimus growled at her as she thrashed around a little more in his grasp.

Saya went still for a second as she panted for breath and mulled over his question. "To the border... I had a craving for Toco's." Optimus gave her a funny look as he thought. _That is the worst lie I've ever heard. Couldn't she have come up with something better? Hell even the excuse; I heard my mother calling me wouldn't have been as lame. _

Saya frowned as she heard a voice in her head and glanced at Optimus and blinked before muttering under her breath, "It's not a bad lie. For all you know I really did have a toco craving." Wait. Who was she defending herself too? She wondered as she looked around before asking in a slightly suspicious tone.

"Did I have to have a metal plate put in my head?" _Am I somehow picking up radio frequencies or something? _

Optimus caught her thought as it entered his mind and had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from snickering.

Silly girl. She had finally picked up on his thoughts. Which meant that it wouldn't be long before she started to answer him with her mind. And finally figured out that _something_ about herself was different.


	11. Chapter 11

"W-Why am I hearing voices in my head?" Saya asked weakly as her legs started to give out on her. If not for Optimus's firm grip on her, she might have fallen and hit her head or something. But he did have a firm grip on her, and he used that grip to haul her up so that he could slip an arm around her smaller body and pick her up as she started to hyperventilate.

He placed one hand against the middle of her back and absently rubbed in an effort to try and calm her without words. He knew that he needed to explain things to her about who he really was and what had really happened to her.

To drive home that what had happened back at his ship hadn't been _just_ a dream.

The only problem that he had with telling her these things was that as open minded and curious as she appeared to be- he wasn't sure she could handle the truth. He started walking, not knowing what else to do other than move on. He needed to get Saya to his other temporary home and get her settled in and get to know him a bit better before he told her anything.

He knew that it was a little bit on the cruel side to let her continue thinking that she was crazy- But he felt that once she knew him better and was a bit more relaxed it would help her understand better. Until then he's have to limit his thoughts so that she couldn't hear them.

He got one block, and Saya started crying.

Her mind spinning from everything that had happened today. He kept picking up the words, _Too fast! Too much!_ And wondered if perhaps some part of her truly felt that everything had happened too fast. The obvious destruction of one of his favorite homes would point to yes.

And yeah he could have gone about intergrating himself into her life in a different way. He could have even tried courting her. But well, the last time he'd done that had been over seven hundred years ago, and the female in question had turned out to not be worth the effort since she had mated with four or five other males behind his back.

Still... the point was that he could have done things different and given her time to get to know him first before spiriting her off to his place.

He paused at the end of the fourth block and rubbed Saya's back in what he hoped was a soothing manner as she hiccupped against his shoulder and took several shuddering breaths, then turned left and started walking again. He was almost to his other home.

It was old, but well maintained. Not only that but he had spare money, credit cards and so on in the house safe that he could use to get food and clothing for himself and his little fire bug.

As soon as he reached his destination, Optimus picked the electronic lock on the gate that went with the high iron fence around the yard surrounding the two story victorian mansion. The second the light on the lock turned green, Optimus pushed the gate open and stepped through it and used one foot to kick it closed once he was sure that Saya's head wouldn't get hit by the metal.

Once the gate clicked closed he walked up the imported stone walk way to the front porch and set Saya down only long enough to find the key he'd hidden the last time he had been here before straightened his spine and looking down at Saya.

She had been eerily silent for the past few minutes and now that he really thought about it he should have felt more concerned than he already was. Yet he'd been so distracted by his former home burning down and getting them to a safe location that he had blocked out everything else.

Well he felt them now. The fear, worry, thinking that she had gone crazy- All of the unbearable things that she didn't dare speak out loud but secretly feared the most. These things were in the forefront of his mind just like they were now in the forefront of hers.

_How does one comfort another when they think they are mad? _Optimus wondered as he reached down and absently brushed his finger tips over her hair to smooth down some of the silken strands. He had no idea how to comfort her and speaking to her telepathically could do more harm than good.

So for the moment he needed to get her inside and find her someplace to lay down while he got his spare credit cards and went and got her what she would need. But he douln't just leave her as she was.

Humans were difficult, even when resting. So he would have to call Jazz or someone to come and stay with her while he ran his errands.


End file.
